NCJ Number
136212
Journal
Health Values Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: (July/August 1991) Pages: 39-48
Date Published
1991
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A study was conducted of eighth and tenth grade students in 23 rural communities bordering Houston, Texas to determine the extent of violence and its relationship to drug abuse.
Abstract
The 1,004 participants answered questionnaires on drug use and violence from the National Adolescent Student Health Survey of behavior, knowledge, and attitudes of American teens on health. Violence was found to be widespread and exceeded the national norms in some respects. More than half of the boys and one-fifth of the girls reported that they had participated in at least one physical fight in the last year. One-fourth of the students said that they had carried weapons at school. One-fourth of girls and one-tenth of boys reported that someone had tried to force them to have sex against their will while outside of school supervision in the last year. Analyses of data revealed that students who took more risk, used drugs more frequently, and were victimized more often during school or on the school bus were more often victims of violent behavior outside the school environment. In addition, students frequently reported behaviors that place them at high risk for becoming victims of violence such as walking alone late at night especially in dangerous places. Violent behavior often accompanied maladaptive belief systems and was associated with drug use. Nearly one-fourth of the students surveyed reported that they had used illegal drugs at least once in their life. This study provides further evidence of the problem of violence in rural communities bordering urban areas, of the links between certain beliefs and violent behavior, and of the connection between drugs and violence. 5 tables and 9 references